Creative thought as blind-variation and selective-retention: Combinatorial models of exceptional creativity

Simonton, Dean Keith

doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2010.02.002

Cited by 226 publications

(172 citation statements)

References 196 publications

(215 reference statements)

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“…Today the most well known proponent of BVSR is Dean Keith Simonton [110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117]. As Simonton [110, p. 310] puts it:…”

Section: An Evolutionary Framework For Creativity?mentioning

confidence: 99%

An evolutionary framework for cultural change: Selectionism versus communal exchange

Gabora

2013

Physics of Life Reviews

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Dawkins' replicator-based conception of evolution has led to widespread misapplication of selectionism across the social sciences because it does not address the paradox that inspired the theory of natural selection in the first place: how do organisms accumulate change when traits acquired over their lifetime are obliterated? This is addressed by von Neumann's concept of a self-replicating automaton (SRA). A SRA consists of a self-assembly code that is used in two distinct ways: (1) actively deciphered during development to construct a self-similar replicant, and (2) passively copied to the replicant to ensure that it can reproduce. Information that is acquired over a lifetime is not transmitted to offspring, whereas information that is inherited during copying is transmitted. In cultural evolution there is no mechanism for discarding acquired change. Acquired change can accumulate orders of magnitude faster than, and quickly overwhelm, inherited change due to differential replication of variants in response to selection. This prohibits a selectionist but not an evolutionary framework for culture and the creative processes that fuel it. The importance non-Darwinian processes in biological evolution is increasingly recognized. Recent work on the origin of life suggests that early life evolved through a non-Darwinian process referred to as communal exchange that does not involve a self-assembly code, and that natural selection emerged from this more haphazard, ancestral evolutionary process. It is proposed that communal exchange provides an evolutionary framework for culture that enables specification of cognitive features necessary for a (real or artificial) society to evolve culture. This is supported by a computational model of cultural evolution and a conceptual network based program for documenting material cultural history, and it is consistent with high levels of human cooperation. Evolutionary Framework Culture 3Keywords: creativity, cultural evolution, meme, natural selection, replicator, selfreplicating automaton Evolutionary Framework Culture 4 IntroductionLike organisms, elements of culture exhibit descent with modification; new ideas and artifacts build adaptively on previous ones. If it were possible to root the social and behavioral sciences in an evolutionary framework, they might achieve a unification comparable with Darwin's unification of the life sciences. Thus it is unsurprising that, dating back to Herbert Spencer's introduction of the notion of social Darwinism a few years after Darwin's Origin of Species, Darwinian thinking has been applied to a range of phenomena outside of biology, including creativity [14,111], neural copying and pruning [11,12,13,23,26], law [55], cosmology [118], computer-mediated communication [74], and perhaps most extensively, cultural and economic change [7,8,15,71,86,87,107,108]. Elements of culture build on one another cumulatively, as demonstrated even in laboratory settings [10]. Not only does culture accumulate over time, but it adapts, diversifies,...

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“…Today the most well known proponent of BVSR is Dean Keith Simonton [110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117]. As Simonton [110, p. 310] puts it:…”

Section: An Evolutionary Framework For Creativity?mentioning

confidence: 99%

An evolutionary framework for cultural change: Selectionism versus communal exchange

Gabora

2013

Physics of Life Reviews

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“…While culture entails socially rather than genetically transmitted information, change in the distribution of cultural traits in a human population can be viewed as a Darwinian process (Darwin 1874;Campbell 1960;Simonton 2010). This is because cultural change entails heritable variation and differential propagation through time.…”

Section: A Brief Background On Cultural Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In conjunction with the transmission biases outlined above, guided variation can lead to the rapid spread of new behaviors and institutions. Individuals and groups may consider multiple innovations before deciding on which one to adopt, which can itself be modeled as a Darwinian process (Campbell 1960;Simonton 2010). Research teams, legislative committees, panels of judges, constitutional conventions and many other kinds of groups can invent new variants.…”

Section: A Brief Background On Cultural Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying cultural evolution to sustainability challenges: an introduction to the special issue

et al. 2017

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“…8 If we understand why we err, we better allow ourselves to risk-taking mistakes. 9 Major cognitive biases include cognitive illusions (i.e., unconscious inferences interfere with interpretation of events/actions), "narrow" framing, selection bias, and confirmation bias.…”

Section: Human Nature and How We Learnmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology and the Brain: Lessons from Patient Care, Social Media and the Internet

Hilty¹

2017

Psychol Cogn Sci Open J

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OVERVIEWTechnology is sweeping through our society in unparalleled fashion, affecting our day-to-day life, education, social relationships, healthcare and business. Our human experience and neuroscience both determine how we interface with technology such that we have "good" (i.e., enjoyment, excitement) and "bad" (i.e., stress) experiences. With regard to healthcare, the patient-centered era features quality, affordable, and timely care; technology is a key part of that, particularly among younger generations. Indeed, the consumer movement related to new technologies may be passing some clinicians by, as new ways of communicating with others (text, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, social media). More reflection is needed on how technology "changes" us, may become the focus of our worst attributes and causes significant problems (e.g., pathological Internet use, privacy/confidentiality breeches). Research approaches and frameworks are needed across many fields and disciplines of science, medicine and human behavior regarding our use of technology. HUMAN NATURE AND HOW WE LEARNA recent article distinguishes our species-homo sapien-by our ability to contemplate the future through cortical function; 1 homo prospectus is suggested since we thrive by considering our prospects and this foresight created civilization and sustains society. When making plans, we have higher levels of happiness and lower levels of stress than at other times, perhaps because this channels concerns into an organized plan. Studies show depressed people imagine fewer positive scenarios while overestimating future risks. We are also governed by the subcortical function, too, in many ways including addictions.Cognitive psychology focuses on learning, memory and perception. Learning is a complex neurobiological and social phenomenon. How we learn is dependent on our personal experience and professional training, including what is formally taught and what we learn on our own. Discussing what we know, what we don't, and how to learn better/more is a key developmental step. Evaluating our strengths and weaknesses is also essential for professional development. Using our 'best' learning styles and facilitating others' gives us many ways to approach problems. 2-3Neurobiology informs us on learning, including Hebbian theory about adaptation of neurons in the brain during this process. Synaptic plasticity and increased synaptic efficacy arises from the presynaptic cell's repeated and persistent stimulation of the postsynaptic cell. 4 Similarly, behaviorists think of animal learning as the ingraining of habit by repetition. Injury and mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia) disrupt this. Repetition and planned redundancies help us enhance our retention by allowing us to "relearn" things as we build toward more complex skills. Visualization is another form of repetition, which may mentally 'prepare' us to perform tasks. Stress in moderation is helpful and in principle, fatigue, Multitasking and interruptions are to be minimized. Sociologic, educational and psycho...

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Creative thought as blind-variation and selective-retention: Combinatorial models of exceptional creativity

Cited by 226 publications

References 196 publications

An evolutionary framework for cultural change: Selectionism versus communal exchange

An evolutionary framework for cultural change: Selectionism versus communal exchange

Applying cultural evolution to sustainability challenges: an introduction to the special issue

Technology and the Brain: Lessons from Patient Care, Social Media and the Internet

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